obviously he's got the uwe united states out of iraq. the united states after going up has now come down to some extent in afghanistan. the middle east, even though it's turbulent, is more open than it was. so i think the president in general can point to some areas where he moved forward and some areas obviously his critics will say where he movedded back. all in all it's a defense i believe and defendable record. >> ifill: i want to walk through some of that piece by piece. referencing the president's speech today, he turned over a big chunk of it to talking about the difference between railing against or speaking out against violence... violent extremism versus protecting free speech. why was so much devoted to that topic? >> gwen, i thought it was an interesting speech. very reflective speech. i think probably designd by the president and his advisors to try to heal some of the wounds that have been so apparent between the muslim world and the united states over these last two weeks, these very tragic weeks. i thought it was interest